we live in a world unlike the one our
ancestors devolved in
we live in abundance
yes we have access to more entertainment
more information more choices than we
can even comprehend
but is it a good thing
is the internet making us
unhappy
this story begins like many internet
stories
alright
pretty much all packed i'm late to the
airport so i should not even be filming
this right now but it's important i'm
going to new york
okay to the airport
why did i get a one-way ticket from
mexico to new york well at some point
over the last few months the algorithms
began recommending videos of four
friends living together
truth or drink with roommates
[Laughter]
all of whom are youtubers from the
outside they live the kind of life that
we all dreamed of when watching friends
or how i met your mother growing up they
all make videos together and their
chemistry as friends make them seem like
real life sitcom characters maybe you've
never heard of them but it doesn't
matter we've all seen people on the
internet live the lives we wish we had
deep down
that's the internet for you
a repository of everything a gigantic
mirror of ourselves
and it felt like the internet was
showing me exactly what i felt i lacked
in my life
without fully realizing it seeing those
videos left me with a pain of loneliness
i wanted what they had
there was only one way to answer many of
my questions
i had to meet these people
[Music]
okay so here's the crazy part of all
this all we've done is exchanged a few
messages like on instagram friendship as
an adult requires conscious effort and
i think we're all just looking for ways
to trust each other more quickly and so
i've just decided to just be as open as
possible and i'm filming this in the
bathroom because the light's good okay
meet kelly wakasa yeah this is like uh i
do feel like i'm interviewing an
influencer right now when you wear that
[Laughter]
i describe him as a goofball and also a
very talented storyteller are you really
not a morning person
yeah i'm not like i'll just
i'll just wake up at like 11 12. when do
you go to bed
two three and when you go to bed early
isn't it easier to wake up early of
course okay this is the stupidest
interview
i can't use any of this okay the real
questions now do you ever feel like
concerned at all that you're sharing an
unrealistic lifestyle
you know it's really like romantic you
know and and accessible if you have a
good income yeah
i do do you really because i used to
look at what i do now
and used to be like damn like i wish i
had that and it really makes me sad
because like i have a sister who's in
college who's struggling right now she's
like first year trying to make friends
sorry carrie
but like
it just sucks because you can turn on
one of my videos or any of our videos
and it looks amazing it looks perfect
and i'm like that's
that's not like
real because each video was for me like
years and years in the making i have
said like this is like you know put
together a vlog it still doesn't matter
like i as that kid who was once in those
shoes looking
at like the top creators or like you
know people that live a luxurious life
i'm like dude like my life still sucks
you know yeah so it's just it's tough
and i i do feel bad and i'm
i'm trying to be conscious about it but
yeah it is
it does like
keep me up at night sometimes just like
damn like how do i
navigate that yeah you know what it felt
like felt like i was asking myself these
questions these are questions i grapple
with of my relationship with the
internet what i should and shouldn't
share and how to share those things i
can't imagine my life without the
internet but at the same time i
sometimes feel overwhelmed by everything
that's out there and how convincing it
can look do you feel like the internet
has made you like a happier person and a
happier person or just like no effect i
mean i think like all the above you know
it's not it's like a wave but i think
overall happier all the people i've met
that live in my house right now i met
through the internet all these
opportunities even to meet you it's like
this isn't possible without the internet
it's true the internet is a dangerous
place because we have so much power to
shape what we share
yeah i don't know i'm thinking the title
for this turn the camera a little more
towards actually her face is kind of
distorted i can be like yeah
i think the title for this one's like we
met on the internet like i'm trying to
make it i don't know how to do a title
with happiness and it does like more arm
you know like you know it sounds like
it's like we're filming like vlogging
like like this almost like uh
you know what i'm saying like for the
thumbnail you mean yeah like it's like
we like we're holding the camera like
this is so much fun i don't know yeah
yeah maybe i should do that there you go
yeah
nice what's your understanding of what
i'm doing um you are you think that our
house is fascinating and you want to
identify it like we're the first people
ever to have our entire lives documented
and i feel like we're going to be
studied like historically i mean we are
the first generation natively on the
internet yeah with that it causes like a
lot of repercussions it's like probably
there's like a lot of mental health
issues going on right now yeah i think
i'm a highly sensitive person so i can
tell when i'm getting overwhelmed by
things
and i think the internet has made me a
happier person in that i
do more things and i like to go out and
step out of my comfort zone it could be
like a fake world if you think of it
that way
because if you think of it like we're
not evolutionarily
wired to receive all this feedback the
digital world is not going to leave it's
only become more digital so it's kind of
something that we have to learn how to
deal with and like set boundaries with i
never take anything i see on the
internet for face value because even
it's like if we had a whole clip like
you're gonna edit this documentary like
this clip completely differently from
how i would edit it no i won't
if you don't see anyone in their videos
or their interactions that like looks
like you or anything like maybe don't
maybe find a new creator to support i
don't know but even then like
it's even more dangerous if they look
like you like that's true you shouldn't
assume that they're coming from the same
context yeah i mean yeah that's very
true too i really just don't think you
can ever really know unless you're
right here yeah do you feel like you
know me i don't
we've hung out we met yesterday i get
your vibe i'm like you know you have a
great presence and a great vibe but
yeah i don't feel like i i started
watching your psychedelics video i was
like oh this is good
i'll sit down for this interview
oh that's cool yeah are you just saying
this because i'm filming you no i
wouldn't say that i would just no i know
no i get i get actually a very honest
vibe from you yeah which is why i was
excited to interview you like i feel
like you're the perfect person for this
thank you
all right
so before i go any further into this
video i have to pause here briefly to
talk about the sponsor of this video
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and let's dive back in one of the most
interesting things that comes up all the
time in conversations about the internet
and happiness is privilege how visible
the internet makes privilege a delicate
word so many of us grapple with in the
21st century in a world still so steeped
in injustices what you're sharing is
this amazing lifestyle that doesn't
always it's not tangible for everyone
exactly and so i was wondering if you
feel no that's something that i that
actually really blocked me for a lot of
creating content because i mean my dad
is a doctor he was like a colonel in the
army like if wurst comes to work my
brother's a doctor i have a lot of
safety nets to fall back on
so that's something that i really
struggled with is like my own privilege
and so that's actually something i try
to be really open and honest about it's
like not everyone can do this like i
come from alaska and even people in
alaska someone sent me a dm today that
was like
you have all the opportunity in the
world but imagine if you were born in
alaska because some people
don't have the ability to ever get out
of alaska you know so i think that's
something i'm highly aware of and it
used to like really
weigh down on me because i'm just like
why should i be able to do this if you
know i was just kind of born into these
opportunities but i think i've kind of
turned it around to be like okay how can
i take this and make it so that it also
benefits like other people with my
videos i'm like a huge goal of mine for
last year was like foster community i
did wallow in like guilt for a really
long time though and that's not helping
anything or anyone either i tried to be
really transparent about it even like
when i was doing college vlogs i was
like my parents paid my tuition like a
lot of people try to pretend that they
don't have their privilege and i think
that's much worse and i think that's
actually doing a disservice to everyone
because it's like you can get to a
certain point but no one's doing it on
their own and especially like not me and
i feel like not really anyone in this
house it is tricky the the
the guilt from privilege you know which
is just not productive or helpful to
anybody yeah and like i mean i would
talk to my parents about all the time
they understand where i'm coming from
but they
they both came from like
poor backgrounds like they really worked
their way up like my mom like immigrated
from korea pick strawberries and so i
think they kind of got sick of the word
like privilege because i would just
always talk about it
um because they worked super hard for
you to have a better life anyway right
like in a sense it's a success right
yeah and it's like it really like what
good does that do for me to just
constantly be in my head thinking about
how i can have all these opportunities
but don't use it for anything it's just
very hard to share a full picture
there's so much pressure to make stuff
interesting and fun to watch and
exciting in a sense there are so many
incentives to not make this real life
well at the end of the day it's not fun
to watch something boring and if you
watch the full picture or like if you
looked at what we all like what we do to
like make a video that is boring like no
one wants to see that so you've got to
make like
entertainment at the end of the day
it was in having these conversations and
i realized something the internet is a
tool and you have to treat it that way
this tool requires discipline because
without discipline you can get lost in
the abundance you can either consume you
with envy a poison that eats you up or
it can be aspirational a push to create
a better life for yourself but there's a
key ingredient here you have to create
it everyone i talked to agreed the
internet has given us more as creators
than consumers
i'm very much like okay consumer creator
you want to be creating things has
internet made me a happier person
i mean like
kind of because
i built my career around the internet
but if i didn't have a career on social
media and
heavily involved in the internet i would
probably
not have social media out it's great
like there's a lot of like opportunities
career-wise business-wise
but at the same time from like a
consumer perspective
it's
very dangerous so if you weren't a
creator
you think the internet would actually
probably make you more unhappy if i was
just a consumer not negative it's true
that i reap most of the benefits from
the internet by making things
yeah definitely by far but i know
ultimately me doing what i love will
make other people do what they love and
like i think
if i'm doing what i think is
my purpose then like it helps other
people find their purpose prioritizing
like your friends like in real life is
just like super important interact with
people like face to face
it's interesting isn't it how real life
is grounding and the internet can be
ungrounding like yeah yeah that's
definitely how i feel about it
i only spent four days in new york
let's go welcome to the family
and get my view of this little group
completely changed
i love it this all started as me alone
looking at my computer screen and ended
up feeling very different what up guys i
think what changed everything was that i
took the leap i wanted to meet the
people
the truth is i'll never have what they
have i can't live someone else's life
and that's okay
i have my own life this unique path that
i'm on and that's how it is for all of
us
don't get lost looking at what everyone
else has
your own brilliant adventures and
experiences are waiting for you
[Music]
hey uh so is uh
is casually happening
yes
wow you guys really are exactly the same
in real life i love that this is
happening not necessarily when he's
filming
it would have been pretty a pretty big
bummer arriving here in ireland and you
know discovering that you guys are like
not friends or maybe you're like just
totally different personalities off the
camera i've kissed emery on the cheek
i've kissed elliot on the lips
i think
i've kissed ashley on the lips we all
kiss here
it's what we do because that's what
family does we don't tom brady each
other but we can what the [ __ ] does that
mean tom brady's son comes in like let
me get a kiss pack he goes that's all i
get
and he goes like cpr
it's so bad oh my god
they were making out with this kid
like
i mean like a peck is fine like you know
it's just like normal like
but like
that was like a